The Source be With You

MANI BHAUMIK





Some feel that religion and spirituality are nothing more than superstition. But why throw the baby out with the bathwater? Everything comes from one source but we can't communicate with that. So, we came up with this idea of having icons we can relate to; behind them was a bigger, deeper meaning. But over time, we forgot about the Source. Nature and creator comprise wholeness, the essence of spirituality .How would you define God?
In two words: creator and sustainer. We need a new name for God; I call it the Source, but I suppose it's not catchy . The Source is in microcosm; it is intimately connected with our being. A single cell has all the material to make trillions of cells that your body requires.And it is all developed from a single cell and that blueprint continues to be in that cell. So is the universe, the blueprint of everything, which was there when the universe started -it is still present in the universe.
Is consciousness quantifiable? Scientists have no clue where consciousness comes from.I'm aware of you and you're aware of me. You may experience it but that's not science.We have no scientifically established idea of consciousness.There is another school -to which I belong -which says consciousness is an inbuilt quality of awareness.
It's the self-interaction capability . The brain commandeers that universal potential, `aham bhramasmi' (`I'm part of Brahmn'). We don't have an instrument to measure consciousness, but we can measure its physiological manifestation.

I Am Rich, But Not Attached To Money

Mani Bhaumik





My first moment of epiphany was when i looked up at the stars and felt the presence of something powerful. But that was in my childhood and i had left all that behind me. After years of excitement and hard work, i had everything to be happy about. The problem with excitement is that one excitement needs a bigger one to be satisfied. I thought that people live happily as long as they had enough money , but i could still feel an emptiness in me.There was a party at my house one day. After the guests had left, i was alone beside the swimming pool. My thoughts strayed to my growing up years in India. In those days, though my stomach ached with hunger and my pulse throbbed with the anxiety of an uncertain tomorrow, i never walked alone. All around me was the undeniable presence of that living web from which all things are born and continually unfold. That moment, i knew the cause of my unhappiness at once ­ `That' presence was missing. I was satisfied with what i had, but i wasn't happy. That's when i decided to get to the bottom of this feeling of unhappiness. Over a period of time, i found myself asking the question: Who am I? I was in a rat race like most other scientists who don't have the time to think. Moreover, i had my poverty to overcome.
After achieving my goals, i thought i would be happy but i wasn't. I felt that i should know more about my Indian spiritual heritage. I remember what M K Gandhi said, “Happiness is an inside job. It can't come from the outside.“ But gradually i became a sceptic scientist and my motto was to not take anyone's word for it. I decided to study religion and did so for 10 years. What i found blew my mind. I realised that there is a higher power just like the Brahmn that vedanta describes and it pervades all space without exception.
I resolved to pledge myself to working in concert with others with a common desire to forge a new alloy of spirituality and science, strong enough to withstand the centrifugal forces of our age.
The fact is, we need to believe in a higher power that is universal, and much bigger than us. In all spiritual traditions, we have the desire to communicate with that entity .piness doesn't come from Happiness doesn't come from science; it comes from experience and clarity. When my mind is clear, i feel one with the Source. That's how i got back my peace of mind. Money is necessary; you can't renounce everything and go to the Himalayas. For spiritual progress, renunciation is not required.Attachment is what causes problems, and you need to guard yourself against it. I may have all luxuries, but i'm not attached to them. I can enjoy a luxurious life; i can take it or leave it.
We have 5,000 years of tradition; Buddha says that attachment causes suffering. Relieving suffering by renunciation is not the right way; you don't have to renounce everything and go away , although it is easy to do so.

TN top tourist draw for 2nd straight year

Himanshi Dhawan

New Delhi





Tamil Nadu has topped the popularity charts for both domestic and foreign tourists for the second year in a row, beating Maharashtra and other favoured destinations like Goa and Kerala.TN received 4.68 million foreign tourists in 2015, a tad higher than 4.66 million in 2014. Domestically , it continued its winning streak since 2013 with 333.5 million Indians visiting in 2015, according to tourism ministry data. Tamil Nadu's rise as a top-ranker for Indian and foreign travellers is surprising and could possibly be attributed to Indians working and studying abroad and non-resident Indians coming to visit family and relatives,“ an industry source said.
Maharashtra came second with 4.41 million foreign tourists, thanks mainly to Mumbai's busy airport that acts as a gateway for India. Uttar Pradesh, with the famous Taj Mahal, attracted 3.1 million tourists and is in the third place while Delhi with 2.38 million foreign tourists came in fourth.
Others states that are in the top 10 included West Bengal (1.49 million), Rajasthan (1.48 million), Kerala (0.98 million), Bihar (0.92 million), Karnataka (0.64 million) and Goa (0.54 million).Goa returned to the top 10 after a year's gap.
The contribution of top 10 states was about 88.4% to the total number of foreign tourist visits in the country during 2015.
Domestic tourists by far overshadowed foreign tour ists' flow with 1432 million tourists in 2015 as compared to 1282 million in 2014, registering a growth of 11.63%.
Besides Tamil Nadu, the top 10 states that Indians travelled to include Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Telangana.

Source: Times of India, 1-07-2016

Assam’s Majuli becomes India’s first island district

The Assam Government has granted district status to Majuli, a 400 square kilometres island in the Brahmaputra River. With this it becomes India’s first island district. Decision in this regard was taken by the state cabinet meeting presided by Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal in Guwahati. With this erosion-troubled Majuli island will become the 34th district of Assam. Earlier it was sub-division of Jorhat district. About Majuli island Geographical occurrence: The fluvial riverine island is formed by the Brahmaputra river system. It is the world’s largest mid river delta (island) system. The island is surrounded by Subanisri River in the North, main Brahmaputra River on the South and kherkatia Suli, split channel of Brahmaputra River in northeast. People and Culture: Majuli island is mostly inhabited by Mishing tribal people. It has been the hub of Assamese neo-Vaishnavite culture initiated by saint-reformer Srimanta Sankardeva in 15th century. The island had some 65 satras (monasteries adhering) to Vaishnavism. But large numbers of them were relocated to the mainland after being washed away. The main surviving satras include Garamurh, Dakhinpat, Kamalabari, Auniati and Bengenaati. Flora and Fauna: Majuli island is a rich environmental hotspot harbouring. It is home of many rare and endangered avifauna species including migratory birds. Erosion: Due to erosion of river-bank of the island it has shrunk from about 1250 sq km in 1891 to about 515 sq km.

Source: currentaffairs.gktoday.in, 29-06-2016

MGNREGS provided just 49 work days on average

he rural job guarantee programme provided only 49 days of work on an average across the country in 2015-16 when drought in several states affected farm output and crimped income.

Rural development minister Chaudhary Birender Singh, though, highlighted this number as a record.

Only 10.1% of the total households that had been provided employment had been able to complete 100 days of work as stipulated by the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, according to a Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) outcome report by the rural development ministry.

And the number of households that had completed more than 100 days of work in areas where a drought had been declared was 283.5 million or 5.9% of the total, the outcome report said. Activities under MGNREGS, including building check dams and village ponds, resulted in 46.43 hectares of land being brought under irrigation, the report said.

Ordinarily, in a year of scanty rain, those engaged in agricultural activities—farm labour and even small farmers—would have been unemployed and looking for jobs and even migrating in search of work.

The year 2015-16 was the second consecutive year that rains had failed. At least 11 states, including Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Karanataka have declared a drought. Last year, the central government announced an extension from 100 to 150 days for work under MGNREGS for areas declared as affected by a natural disaster.

It was to stem distress migration and suicides among farmers and alleviate rural distress that MGNREGS was introduced in 2006.

The programme guarantees up to 100 days of unskilled work in a year to every rural household and has been credited with raising rural household incomes. It has been a key source of livelihood for millions of rural households.

“The average of 49 days of work is a record,” rural development minister Singh told reporters on the sidelines of a conference in New Delhi.

MGNREGS has had a record of never completing 100 days a year since its inception, said Himanshu, associate professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University and visiting fellow at Centre de Sciences Humaines, New Delhi, and a Mint columnist.

“It is only 2% or 3% of the people who complete 100 days of work in a year. The reason for that is that some state governments are proactive, some are not, some pay wages on time, others don’t. So, there are a number of factors for this,” Himanshu said.

“Also, the number 49 days is an all-India average; so it is not correct to compare this with 100 days in a year,” he said.

Another reason for MGNREGS to clock an average of 49 days is because wages under the scheme have fallen below other wages stipulated by states; so the priority will be to go for better paying daily wage jobs, he said.

According to the report, the number of households that demanded employment in 2015-16 were 53.5 million and of these, 48.2 million had been prov i d e d with work. The total person days—or the number of people multiplied by the number of days they had been provided work—stood at 2.36 billion in 2015-16, the report said.

The number of jobs undertaken for asset creation under MGNREGS in the past decade stood at 32 million, of which 23 million were completed, the report said. Land development and irrigation works topped the list of activities under the MGNREGS, it said, followed by water conservation and maintenance and development of traditional water bodies.

Source: Mintepaper, 29-06-2016

Middle Path to Nibbana

SWAMI DHYAN VISMAY





Earlier, days and nights were a mystery; the roar of the wind, cloud and the rains were a mystery; birth-death, fire, trees, flowers and fruit were a mystery . This led to uncertainties, pleasure and misery in our lives. It triggered our intelligence and we became truth-seekers.The individual's existence is a combination of the unconscious or Dhamma, and conscious-self or ego, a mix of observer and doer. Normally , the observer keeps a watch over the doer. As we grow, the conscious-self looks for the entities that generate pleasurable sensations and strives at enhancing this. The expansion of knowledge is centred around this `looking for' and `striving for' habits that have become complex activities.
Developments in the form of various institutions, their laws and interrelationships contribute to ego. The persistent endeavour of truth-finders has been to crack many mysteries. But one mystery still remains: God. Symbolically speaking, God is but a manifestation of fear of human ego for not being able to uncover the causes of mysteries around.
“Dhammam Sharnam Gach chhami,“ said the Buddha, pointing towards the conscious-self as the sole contributor of our life's achievements or otherwise. Meditation helps the observer-self remain separate from the doer-self, always aware of the supreme joyous state of mind-body . In this permanent state of alertness, you are never in extreme pain or extreme pleasure. The Middle Path is about balance that makes Dhamma flow peacefully .

Tor, a software that masks location, identity of internet users

A small library in New Hampshire sits at the forefront of global efforts to promote privacy and fight government surveillance -to the consternation of law enforcement.The Kilton Public Library in Lebanon, a city of 13,000, last year became the nation's first library to use Tor, software that masks the location and identity of internet users, in a pilot project initiated by the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Library Freedom Project. Users the world over can and do have their searches randomly routed through the library . Computers that have Tor loaded on them bounce internet searches through a random pathway , or series of relays, of other computers equipped with Tor. This network of virtual tunnels masks the location and IP address of the person doing the search.
In a feature that makes Kilton unique among US libraries, it also has a computer with a Tor exit relay , which delivers the internet query to the destination site and becomes identified as the lastknown source of the query .
Alison Macrina, founder and director of the Library Freedom Project, said her or ganisation chose Kilton for its pilot project because it had embraced other privacy-enhancing software the project recommended and because she knew the library had the know-how take it to the complicated exit-relay stage.
Tor can protect shoppers, victims of domestic violence, whistleblowers, dissidents, undercover agents and criminals alike. A recent routine internet search using Tor on one of Kilton's computers was routed through Ukraine, Germany and the Netherlands.
“Libraries are bastions of freedom,“ said Shari Steele, executive director of the Tor Project, a nonprofit started in 2004 to promote the use of Tor worldwide. “They are a great natural ally .“
“Local police asked the Kilton library last July to stop using Tor. Its use was suspended until the library board voted unanimously at a standing-room-only meeting in September to maintain the Tor relay . Kilton's really committed as a library to the values of intellectual privacy ,“ Macrina said.
“In New Hampshire, there's a lot of activism fighting surveillance. It's the `Live Free or Die' place, and they really mean it.''

Source: Times of India, 29-06-2016